FOHAC News A Sitting Disease #233

Published: Sun, 01/19/14

Fair Oaks Health News

Welcome

Wanted - 10 volunteers with environmental allergy symptoms or food sensitivities to participate in an allergy symptom relief study using a new Homeopathic protocol Dr. DeLapp is developing. Office visits and Homeopathic remedies will be provided.

January 19, 2014

A Sitting Disease

Hi ,

We have an epidemic of a preventable cause of the major diseases of diabetes and heart disease - sitting. The dangers of sitting are equivalent to smoking as a cause for the failing health of Americans. We have understood for many years how dangerous smoking is for our health. Yet right here under our noses is another cause for heart disease and diabetes that is just as bad and yet we have been completely unaware of it until now.

Understand here that I am not talking about being out of shape. We all understand that being in poor physical condition is a serious health risk. Most of us know we need to exercise and many of us go to the gym religiously to keep ourselves fit.

But sitting disease affects the fit just as much as the unfit. Going to the gym 3 or 4 days a week and keeping our muscles toned and strong does not protect us from the damaging effects of sitting on our hearts and our metabolism. Going to the gym or getting some other form of strenuous exercise regularly is vital for the health of our joints and muscles. Plus it makes us feel better when we are fit. But three or four hours of heavy exercise each week does not change the negative effects of sitting for 30 to 40 hours a week at a desk.

One description I read explains what happens to us when we sit. It is the same as what happens to astronauts in space. Sitting is like being in a low gravity environment. The demand on the heart is less. The requirement to energetically support the muscles working against gravity metabolically with good sugar metabolism is less. Bones get weaker without having to fight gravity all day just to stand upright.

Most of the evidence coming out right now says that the body can really only tolerate sitting down for 15 to 20 minutes at a time. Any longer and the damage starts to accumulate. Sitting shortens your life span - it is that simple.

But so many of us have to sit at a desk or behind the wheel of a vehicle to make a living. What can we do? I have been telling folks just to get up and move for a minute if they have been sitting for a while - like 15 to 20 minutes. If you are going to sit right back down I suggest doing 3 or 4 squats to reactivate the core stabilizer muscles that have been shut off while you were sitting. That should only take 20 seconds to do, so we are not talking about cutting into your work schedule a huge amount. In fact doing squats every 15 to 20 minutes will improve the blood flow to your brain and increase your productivity.

Many of my patients have managed to change their work environment to using a standing desk, or in a couple cases a desk that can adjust up and down easily. This is a much better option for your health. For low back stability I also recommend sitting on an unstable surface like a balance ball or an inflatable wedge. This will allow the low back muscles to get some exercise while you are sitting. But they will not compensate for the need to simply get upright, so our body can resist the pull of gravity.

Think of it as a nutritional need your body has - vitamin G for gravity. Your body needs to resist gravity by standing upright every 15 to 20 minutes. This is a silent need unfortunately. If we passed out after sitting for 15 minutes, then it would be easy for us to see that we need to stand up. But slow hidden processes like heart disease or diabetes build up for years and years before we get any clue that we have a problem.

So get up, do some squats, go get a drink of water, look out the window, find any excuse, but just get up. Here is a simple way - just stand up and then sit down enough to just barely touch the chair three times, then go ahead and settle back down to work while bracing the abdominal muscles for 10 seconds. The whole process takes less than a minute, but it does need to be 3 or 4 times every hour. Your body will thank you for it. I suppose if I really wanted to get everybody to do this, all I would need to say is that you will magically lose 4 pounds a week by just getting up every 15 minutes. I doubt it, but who knows. If you do magically lose 4 pounds a week please email me and let me know.

Take care,

David

Ultrasound Physical Therapy

Now available in the office

Tuesday afternoons and Fridays

On the Wire

The survival time of chocolates

Yes, this was a real study published in the British Medical Journal. Researchers wanted to know the average lifespan of a chocolate candy from a freshly opened box of chocolates placed in four hospital wards in three different hospitals. Boxes of chocolate were covertly placed in open areas and secretly watched to see how long the chocolates lasted and who did the eating. The average lifespan of a chocolate was found to be 51 minutes with most of the chocolates eaten by healthcare assistants and nurses followed by doctors.

Chocolates

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"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

~ Aristotle

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Comparing exercise to drugs

A metaepidemiological study comparing the effectiveness of drug therapy to exercise has found that for heart disease and diabetes the effectiveness is about the same. Of particular interest to me was that exercise was found to be of greater value than the use of blood thinners for stroke patients. Considering how toxic blood thinners are, this is great news. Exercise was equal to drugs at treating heart disease and pre-diabetes while diuretics were more useful in treating heart failure.

Exercise

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

~ Albert Einstein

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Pups Poop Along North-South Magnetic Lines

In a two year intensive study of 35 different breeds of dogs it was found that all breeds will generally line up aligned north to south following the magnetic lines of force when they poop. During magnetic storms when the magnetic lines were in flux the poop pattern was found to be random. So all the that sniffing and spinning around dogs do before they do their business seems to be them trying to figure out which way is north. Who pays for these kinds of studies anyway?

Dogs

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

~ Nelson Mandela

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Our address is 9725 Fair Oaks Blvd.

Finding the new location is very easy. Coming from highway 50 up Sunrise Blvd, you turn left and go up a block. We are on the right hand side - the building just past the Subway Sandwich shop. If you are coming down Sunrise from the Mall area then just turn right on Fair Oaks Blvd and up a block on the right.

If you are coming from the Roseville area you could come down Sunrise Blvd, but that is a long trek. It is probably shorter time wise to come down Auburn Blvd - San Juan Ave like you have been for the Sunset office, but instead of turning left at Sunset, keep going straight 3 more lights to Fair Oaks Blvd and turn left. Go down 2 lights to New York Ave, go through the intersection, and immediately turn into the turn lane once the center divider ends. We are on the left.

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About Dr. DeLapp

Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 30 years. He began experimenting with medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis. In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education. Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic. He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice.
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health.
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities.
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth. The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework. Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.

Fair Oaks Healing
& Arts Center
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